Page:History of India Vol 8.djvu/197

Rh the possessions of the throne of Delhi and the dominions of Hindustan, whose army was said to amount to one hundred thousand foot, with more than one thousand elephants. The Most High God," he adds, "did not suffer the hardships that I had undergone to be thrown away, but defeated my formidable enemy and made me conqueror of this noble country."

A SIKH WARRIOR.

This was done in 1526; Babar's victory at Panipat gave him the mastery of all Northern India and founded the Moghul Empire. He had really accomplished the enterprise with smaller means and resources than those possessed by the English when they had fixed themselves securely in Bengal with a base on the sea; and the great host which he routed at Panipat at the beginning of his campaign was a far more formidable army than the English ever encountered in India until they met the Sikhs, at the end of a century's fighting. Now, what had been done before could be done again, and was indeed likely to be done again, for the whole country was quite incapable of resisting foreign invasion. So, when at the opening of the eighteenth century the Moghul Empire was evidently declining toward a fall, and people were speculating upon what might come after it, we find floating in the minds of